208 
THEILERIA PARVA: ATTEMPTS AT 
CULTIVATION. 
By GEORGE H. F. NUTTALL, F.R.S., 
and G. S. GRAHAM-SMITH, M.D. 
In an earlier paper (11)08, pp. 255—257) 1 , we gave a full account of 
a paper by Miyajima (1907) wherein this author described experiments 
in which he states that he succeeded in cultivating Theileria ( Piroplasma) 
parva. According to Miyajima, he had no difficulty in cultivating the 
parasite when he added the blood of cattle (containing Theileria) to 
ordinary bouillon in the proportion of 1 : 5 to 1 : 10, the cultures being 
maintained at 20—30° C. Miyajima states that trypanosomes appeared 
in his cultures after an interval of 3 days and underwent vigorous 
multiplication reaching “ the maximum after the tenth to fourteenth 
day.” Miyajima’s description of the supposed process of development 
is obscure, and it is difficult to understand how the diminutive intra- 
corpuscular Theileria can develop into a Trypanosoma. We refer the 
reader who desires particulars regarding these experiments to our paper 
already cited. In our paper we stated that “ a certain amount of 
scepticism” appeared justified until Miyajima’s results had been 
extended and confirmed. The warning appears to have come too late 
in respect to Woodcock’s recent review of the Haemoflagellates in Ray 
Lankester’s Treatise on Zoology (1909, Part I. fasc. 1, p. 260), for 
Woodcock appears to accept Miyajima’s remarkable discovery as authentic 
and conclusive. 
Having, through the courtesy of Mr C. P. Lounsbury, Entomologist 
to the Department of Agriculture, Cape Colony, come into the possession 
of ticks ( Rhipicephalus evertsi) infected with Theileria parva, we have 
recently been able to test the accuracy of Miyajima’s cultivation 
1 Nuttall, G. H. F. and Graham-Smith, G. S. (1908). The development of Piroplasma 
canis in culture. Parasitology , i. 243—260, 1 text-figure, Plate XIX. 
